SCREEN Play: A short history of latticework

Posted in Architecture, Coastal Design, Interiors, Uncategorized by jackiefalla

Burji Alshaya Developement . Kuwait City . Gensler . An example of Mashrabiya in 3D – latticework within a latticework screen wrapped around the building envelope – pure genius.

As I contemplated my broken wooden lattice fence last week, and its need for repair, I got to thinking about who wrote it into existence. My somewhat flimsy version is both decorative and practical. It provides an interesting detail between railing and deck, and screens my outdoor activities from the view of passers by on the street. It accomplishes all this while still allowing precious sunlight to stream on in. A feature that comes at a premium in the city.

Left: Brennan’s Restaurant . Veranda Magazine. Right: A Secret Place Somewhere in Boston – down the garden path.

“Form follows function” said Louis Sullivan, and function is what the Egyptians had in mind in their hot weather climate when they first designed the latticework screen known as the mashrabiya. Derived from the Arabic root meaning, place for drinking, the screens allowed for airflow, and the cooling of water jugs. This same concept was later translated to balconies and the cooling of people, often with the extra added benefit of hiding the lounging individual, stretched out on the divan, from the view of pedestrians on the street below.

Layered and luxe this design by Shelly Johnstone- Paschke . Interior Design is luscious.

Wood, metal, stone, structural applications like bridges and girders, or steel sculptures like the Tour Eiffel, lattice is literally everywhere, if you choose to pay attention to it. Italians and their Neoclassical Architecture, a style for which I am very fond, had their own term, Roman Lattice, also referred to as ‘transenna’ or open work screen, whose Latin root is derived from the word ‘net’. As in the mechanism used for catching birds, which resembles the lattice. It is likely this influence that was so prevalent in the early 20th century in America, particularly as an element of design in civic architecture, think museums, government buildings, banks, and universities, that led to our current day uses. Gardens and gates, ceiling and wall details, room dividers, cabinet door inlays, and utility cover casings – lattice lives large in our surroundings.

It feels very southern, or coastal, which makes sense as these are warm weather, often seasonal places, but I’d love to try it out in the city and see if I could get away with it. Would you risk it?

11Aug2020

Don’t Fence Me In

Posted in Architecture, Uncategorized by jackiefalla

I adore being a contradiction in terms. The high fashion, well not skyscraper high, but at least mid-rise high – we’re Boston, not New York City, stiletto wearing gal that works in the construction industry. The diagnosed dyslexic that veraciously devours volume after volume, of whatever I can get my hands on. The singleton that dreams of a house with a white picket fence, but that fence is strictly there for aesthetic purposes, and I own it.

I like to keep as much of the structure as possible to save money – I’ve got big ideas for the inside. Toward that end I’d carefully remove the lattice from above, plug the holes, add the new details, and repaint. On the lower level, I’d either match the house paint’s pale green and see if we can make it disappear or clad it in stone. I do the same with the risers.

Kate Smith, Ella Fitzgerald, Patti Page and many before, sang about, or as I like to tell it – demanded: “land, lots of land, under starry sky’s above”…”let me be by myself in the evening breeze” …. “let me straddle my old saddle underneath the western sky”. They begged not to be fenced in, just as I beg any gal that will listen to me, to buy real estate. It’s the realest thing you can do, to build financial security, which is why I am so happy for my friend Jenn. She took those reigns, mounted that horse, put in her offer, and she’s off and running.

To this city dwelling gal, the home feels really big, so we’ll need to take the renovation in stages. It has great bones, and looks to be in really excellent shape, but that doesn’t mean that she won’t want to put her own stamp on it, and to begin with, she plans on stamping out the lattice at the front entry. I agree, it feels like it’s having an identity crisis, so I have made a few recommendations for alternative fence options for the porch that feel a little more in keeping with the neighborhood, and its Colorado location.

In this second option I am recommending the removal of the lattice from the fence and top, replacing it with vertical running wood details, and adding trees to block the lattice and create a more welcoming approach.

Once the lattice is gone and is no longer a distraction it would be really nice to have a zippy front door color. I’m back to being in love with a racy red or a violet. I’d avoid orange, though I love that color, I’m afraid with the home’s pale green exterior it will look too much like a pumpkin, and since Jenn has just made it clear, with this offer, that she needs no prince charming to save her, we’ll leave the field mice to convert someone else’s pumpkin into a carriage. She’s taking that horse and plans on jumping the fence.

25Mar2017

La . La . Laduree: ain’t we livin’ the dream

Posted in Designer Profiles, Paint Colors, Uncategorized by jackiefalla

Geometry . Beautiful

Every once and again I come across a restaurant or a retail store that I want to move right into. I think to myself, who needs a kitchen (in the case of a clothing store), or who needs a closet? Well, I absolutely need a closet, but I could pull in beautiful lucite racks made by the caring and talented hands of the Brooklyn Gals at Lux Holdups. Those would work. Those would most definitely work. There’s a timelessness to lucite that makes the installation glide seamlessly into any era. Masculine or feminine – ca march – it works.

I first visited Laduree in Paris on the Rue Royale when I was just 19 years old. Now they have locations is fab cities everywhere. Their pale green bags and boxes, accented with gold, won me over before the first French Macaroon, in all its pastel, delicate elegance melted on my tongue. They are like rose petals in every hue, and my love of color has me mesmerized by the silver dollar sized delights. It doesn’t stop there though. The stores design is perfection, as my friend Samantha House would say. Pastel perfection with a geometric twist. I love screens, and diamonds, and circles, and squares. It provides a viewfinder to something beyond. Draws your attention to a scene, or color or space, that you might otherwise not notice.

Green and gold, black and white …it’s all stunning.

Laduree is a garden party, it is a fairy tale, it is a fantasy. Life can be well…exhausting. Laduree, and spaces like it, are replenishing. Your shoulders drop, your lungs fill with oxygen, your synapses start firing. I tingle, just a little bit, and not in a way that I think I am having a stroke, and need to google WedMD to see if I am dying. In the good way, like I am a child again, and possibility, creativity, and imagination reign free – in a place before the adults told you otherwise. That’s Laduree. It’s Alice in Wonderland without the creepy animal heads at the tea party.

Ladurée Celebrates Its New Beverly Hills Boutique With Jimmy Choo

Peachy Pink Perfection and Lattice Delight.

The ice cream parlor green, peachy pink, the black and white diamond floors, and daisy accented walls, the layers of lattice, and pastel pallet of paints is precisely what I long to reference when I design No. 5. Finding a millwork specialist that is willing to do something out of the ordinary – and not charge me an arm and a leg, will be the challenge. I’ll find them. This week, after being turned down three times by Electrical Contractors too busy to help, I pulled a guy off the street to do the work. I literally saw them out the window, dragged them into my unit, and begged them to finish the job that my contractor could not finish himself. Thank you Giroux Electrical Contractors. girouxelectric.com. You were my Knight in shining armor.